When Inna discovered inexpensive round-trip airline tickets to Paris, we made plans to visit Paris for one week in Christmas, followed by a week of snowboarding in either France (
Chamonix) or nearby Switzerland (
Verbier or
Zermatt). With these plans in mind, we made reservations in a lovely
Airbnb apartment in the center of Paris. However, due to the recent violence, we decided to bypass Paris and visit Turin, Italy, instead. With some difficulty, we could cancel our Paris
Airbnb apartment and re-plan our trip around Turin. We considered visiting Geneva instead but did not find enough interesting things there.
We planned to fly out on Air France #83 from San Francisco at 3:15pm, landing at Charles de Gaulle airport (near Paris) on December 24 at 11:05. From there, we would take the TGV (high-speed train) from Gare de Lyon station to Porta Susa train station in Turin. We made reservations to stay in the relatively inexpensive
Hotel Residence Torino Centro, which is located near the Porta Susa train station. After a week in Turin, exploring the city and its notable museums (the
Egyptian Museum is supposed to be second best in the world), we would take a train to Verbier, Switzerland, for 5 days of snowboarding. On Monday, January 7, we would take an early train from Verbier to Paris, where we would spend half a day (and hopefully get to see the famous
Moulin Rouge show.
To prepare for the trip, I ordered a few electronic gadgets:
- Motorola G6 unlocked cell phone (to use with European sim cards) at Costco for $219
- I could not use the Motorola G6 phone since I could not find an inexpensive SIM card in Turin. I should have purchased a Prepaid Europe sim card from Amazon before starting my trip.
- GoPro Hero7 Black for recording snowboarding at Verbier - $350 on Craigslist
- The GoPro Hero7 worked great at Bardonecchia and Verbier to record snowboarding.
- Motorola T600 H20 Walkie-talkie for communication during snowboarding - $85 on Amazon
- When Alex and I separated, the T600 walkie-talkie proved helpful at Bardonecchia and Verbier.
- Lowepro Fastpack BP 250 AWII for carrying photo gear - $97.78 on Amazon
- The Lowepro was a great backpack, fitting my MacBook Pro, Kindle, Hero 7, Canon G7x, and Canon 5DS DSLR
- GlocalMe G3 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot for iPhones and computers - $101.99 on Amazon
- I used GlocalMe everywhere in Europe. The prices for data are a bit high, but it does work well
Monday, December 24, 2018
Since I decided to bring both of our snowboards & boots, I was hoping that all the
Uber or Lyft cars I ordered could accommodate the slightly elongated shape of the snowboard bag. The first car I ordered on Lyft did not have space for my snowboard, but the
UberX Prius was able to accept it.
Traveling with the snowboard bag was quite inconvenient, and there were multiple times that I wished that I had not brought it with me (and rented snowboards instead). Getting our snowboards saved us $320 rental fees (and 1-2 hours of rental time), but required using larger vehicles on UberX and added travel complexity (especially on trains). When traveling to Europe next time, I would rent snowboards instead.
We flew out of San Francisco at 4:00pm (with a 45-minute delay due to fog). The flight was long and tedious, and both Inna and I developed severe migraines. We could sleep a bit on the flight and enjoyed the light chicken dinner served on the flight. Before taking off, we also had lunch at Boudin in San Francisco airport, but the salads were quite atrocious.
On the plane, I watched a couple of movies. I started with
Early Man animation by Nick Park (of Wallace & Gromit fame), which was quite funny. I didn't finish it and switched to
The Battle of the Sexes - a story about Billie Jean King's pro tennis victory against Bobby Riggs (her male rival). Emma Stone played the role of Billie Jean King. While her acting was exceptional, her tennis looked quite mediocre. A real women's pro tennis player would have made the tennis matches more realistic. Billie was upset that the women's pro tournaments did not provide equal rewards. She worked to change this inequity.
Following this film, I watched
The Music of Silence - a biopic about Andrea Bocelli. It was a very illuminating film that described Bocelli's trials and tribulations on his road to becoming a great opera singer while dealing with a debilitating onset of blindness.
I also watched the Russian movie
Sobibor, about the only known successful escape of concentration camp survivors from the German Prison of Sobibor. It was an emotionally heavy movie and was well-acted.
Tuesday, December 25, 2018
Merry Christmas! When the Air France jet landed at Charles de Gaulle airport, we quickly picked up our luggage (my snowboard bag was at the oversized counter) and ordered a taxi to Gare de Lyon station. Paris was sunny but cold, with a chilly 39 Fahrenheit air temperature. Surprisingly, there was a lot of traffic in the city. I thought about taking
UberX, but the standard taxi fare was 50 euros (the same as
UberX), so I decided to use the taxi instead. Due to the giant snowboard bag, the taxi people selected a van for me, and it cost 62 euros (I think I was ripped off, but I figured it was Christmas).
We decided to grab a coffee and light lunch at the Montreux Jazz Cafe at the Gare de Lyon train station. My cappuccino was acceptable, but the Caesar salad was average. However, it was one of the few open cafes on Christmas, so we didn't have high expectations. The sliced baguette wasn't too bad, and the service was surprisingly fast (though it took the kitchen 20 minutes to make two Caesar salads). I turned on the
GlocalMe G3 WiFi Hotspot, and it started working immediately. I was getting pretty good speeds on my iPhone and was happy to have it with me.
The GlocalMe G3 was a great device, and I used it everywhere in Europe. It provided excellent wireless performance (and quickly re-charged my iPhone 7, too). I wish I had two of them with me (one for me and one for Inna).
I should have pre-purchased the
PrePaid Europe (UK THREE) sim card with 12GB data before the trip, as it saved me a lot of hassle. I had difficulty finding prepaid SIM cards in Italy and Switzerland. (PrePaid sim card is $28.00 / 12 GB data vs. GlocalMe of $9.00 / 1 GB data vs. AT&T $10 / day or $60 / 1 GB data)
Our TGV train to Turin, Italy, was scheduled to depart at 2:41 pm, and we ran for the train because it took a long time to get to station 15. Running with the 40 lb. The Snowboard Bag was very uncomfortable. Thankfully, we did not miss our Turin-bound TGV train!
I expected the TGV train to have free WiFi, but it did not. Luckily, I had my
GlocalMe device while on the train (to browse emails and read Quora). We arrived in Turin on time at 8:18pm and quickly walked to our
Hotel Residence Torino Centro. Our hotel room, #210, was spacious but had too much street noise. After checking in, we dropped off our bags and headed for dinner at
Osteria del Frate. I was unsure whether any restaurants would be open on Christmas, but our hotel recommended and made reservations to an excellent osteria.
It was a delicious Christmas Day dinner, with 4 courses, red wine, and dessert - all for 30 euros per person (what a bargain - I was expecting it to cost 50 euros per person). It included a cheese appetizer, sliced veal meat in a unique Hollandaise sauce, a pasta dish, and beef with mashed potatoes. These were Italian specialties of the Piedmont region, and we enjoyed them immensely.
The red wine - a Vadri Barbera d'Alba - was also quite delicious - not bitter like the standard California red.
After a short walk back to our hotel, we returned to rest.
Wednesday, December 26, 2018
On our first full day in Turin (Torino in Italian), we woke up relatively late - around 9:00 - since everyone was still tired from the long transatlantic flight and the subsequent train ride.
Although we slept well, we heard a lot of outside traffic noise in our room, and we decided to try asking for a quieter location. The hotel staff had a room coming up open, so we re-packed our belongings so that the hotel staff would move them over when the new room was finally ready. When we returned in the evening, our new room, #214, was much quieter.
We asked the hotel staff for breakfast recommendations, and he suggested we try eating breakfast at the nearby
Pastarell bakery. We walked a few blocks over to the bakery and found a delicious assortment of cakes, pastries, and loaves of bread. However, there was little seating indoors, and outdoor seats were not heated. This bakery focused on desserts, and we did not spot savory dishes. Perhaps incorrectly, we decided to go somewhere else to eat a more wholesome breakfast. Right next door was the Vergnano Cafeteria, with plenty of indoor seating and acceptable-looking pastries. We ordered hot black tea and a few pastries. The pastries were not bad, but it turned out (in retrospect) to be the worst place we had breakfast in Turin.
Finishing breakfast, we walked along Garibaldi Street, looking at the exciting items on sale in multiple shops. There were many beautifully decorated shops, and Inna enjoyed browsing Italian clothes.
After some time, we stopped by for a quick lunch at the local Focacceria Blob on Garibaldi. The focaccia breads were delicious and inexpensive (18.00 euros for a few slices). After drinking hot black tea, we were ready for more exploring.
We continued our walk to Piazza Castello and walked into the nearby
Palazzo Madama museum. We were told it would take 4 hours to tour the entire museum - which seemed too long for me. Consequently, we decided to focus on the traveling
Van Dyck exhibit in the nearby
Musei Reali Torino. The
Van Dyck collection was exciting and took us about an hour to complete. Since we were cold (yet again), we stopped by for a quick tea break at the nearby museum cafe.
Since Italy is famous for having some of the most beautiful cathedrals, called Duomos, we decided to stop by the one in Turin. (The cathedrals in Florence, Sienna, and Milan are the finest examples of Italian art worldwide).
Turin's most famous cathedral -
The Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist - holds the sacred Shroud of Turin. It has a likeness of Jesus on it. There is some controversy about the authenticity of this shroud - but it did look quite impressive.
After exploring Turin some more, we decided to take a closer look at the unique Mole Antonelliana building. We saw a long line for tickets when we walked closer to it.
After getting in line, we discovered that the line was for going to the top of the Mole for a panoramic view of Turin. There was no line to enter the
Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino inside.
We decided to see the Cinema Museum first (and if we had time left over), see the panorama. The museum took us all the rest of the time until closing at 20:00.
We enjoyed the movies, sets, sound effects, and all aspects of this beautiful, world-class museum. Inna even wanted to return because she felt a bit rushed.
As we were hungry, we decided to find a nearby pizzeria. Luckily, we found
Pizzeria Scugnizzo nearby, which proved to have the best-tasting pizza we've ever eaten.
I had the "
Beatrice" pizza, in which the Buffalo cheese is added after the pizza has been fully baked so that the Buffalo cheese is fresh (and not burned or melted). The thin crust of the dough was just amazing! Alex enjoyed his "
Margherita" pizza while Inna ate her excellent "
Prosciutto-Fungi Mattone" pizza. Even with half a bottle of delicious Italian wine, the bill only came out as 34.50 euros (what a bargain!)
As the Pizzeria was far away from our hotel, we considered taking the bus back to our hotel. However, when we boarded bus #31, we realized that bus tickets could not be purchased on the bus and had to be pre-purchased at a Tobacco store. We got off the bus and ended up walking home. We decided to pre-purchase bus tickets ahead of time in case we needed them again.
On the way home, we ran into Grom Gelateria and stopped by for a few scoops of delicious gelato.
Thursday, December 27, 2018
We decided to eat breakfast in the morning at our
Hotel Residence Torino Centro. It included yogurt, croissants, hot black tea, cappuccino, cereal, and fruits. The price was not bad either - $15.00 / person (with Alex eating free).
After finishing breakfast, we decided to explore the fine
Egyptian Museum. When we arrived around 11:00, there was a long line to get in, and we waited 30 minutes.
Inna was not feeling well and had difficulty focusing on all the fine exhibits in this extensive museum.
We spent about 3 hours there (and we could have easily spent the whole day, as there were so many Egyptian artifacts to see).
There were many impressive exhibits, including the long scrolls of the
Book of the Dead. Amazing mummies, sarcophaguses, tools, and pottery were also presented with great audio commentary. The free audio guide was beneficial in explaining the details behind the significant artifacts.
When we finished with the museum at around 15:00, we were annoyed to learn that most restaurants had closed. Alex wanted to try eating pizza at the nearby
Eataly (but the restaurant closed at 15:00, and this particular location did not make pizza). Restaurant lunch service in Italy ends at 15:00, so only coffee shops and fast-food joints were still open. After trying to find a suitable place to eat, we settled on an improvised lunch at
Chiosto. Alex ate pasta, and I had a sandwich with chicken. The meal was quite delicious and relatively inexpensive.
After lunch, we walked around Turin, looking at the various shops and marveling at the festive Christmas decorations.
We decided to try eating dinner at
Eataly (one of Alex's favorite restaurants). Since Eataly was founded in Turin, we wanted to experience the "original" experience. At around 19:00, we returned to Eataly and found a dinner table.
I selected "Gnocchi Zucca" with potatoes (there was no pizza at this Eataly location). Alex set the "Spaghetti Al Pomodoro," and Inna ordered the "Ravioli Castle." For dessert, we shared a delicious "Tiramisu".
Unlike
Eataly in New York City, we were annoyed that this Turin location did not sell hot drinks like coffee or black tea (we were a bit cold). I liked the food, but other restaurants were superior for the price.
On the way back to our hotel, we stopped by the
Gelateria La Romana. This was a Gelateria close to our hotel. Inna drank an affogato (espresso with ice cream), Alex munched on gelato, and I drank a hot black tea.
Friday, December 28, 2018
In the morning, we decided to try eating breakfast at the Bar Bon Turin. This was a trendy eatery for frequent travelers, and we saw multiple Italians stop by for coffee or a quick bite.
I decided to try the cold
Margherita pizza with black tea for breakfast. It was pretty delicious (even when cold). Inna selected a croissant (called brioche in Italian) and black tea.
At this time, we decided to separate. Inna would take the metro M1 line to
QC Termetorino Spa. At the same time, Alex and I would ride from Porta Susa to Lingotto (a 30-minute ride) to visit the world-famous
National Automotive Museum.
However, when Alex and I arrived in Lingotto, we received a call from Inna that her spa was over-booked. She wanted to join us on the automotive museum tour. We waited for her to get on the metro and then walked to the
Museo dell'automobile.
I really enjoyed the many unique and one-of-a-kind automobiles in this fantastic museum. The cars were very well presented - with a dash of Italian flair. I have never heard of many pre-1900 models from Mercedes and other French and Italian makes. In addition, there were many of the latest Ferraris. After spending a few hours at the museum, we hurried to the Eataly in Lingotto for lunch.
We arrived at Eataly Lingotto before closing, so I ordered a "Margherita" pizza while Alex tried the Buffalo pizza. All of us also sampled the delicious gelato.
After lunch, we took bus #18 from Lingotto to Mole Antonelliana. We wanted to see the panoramic view of Turin, but the entry line was too long (and then we learned that all the tickets were sold out).
Inna wondered what to do when she thought of trying the specialty Al Bicerin drink at the world-famous
Caffe Al Bicerin.
After waiting an hour, we were seated (before closing) in the super small cafe (known to have been frequented by famous people).
We ordered the famous Al Bicerin drink for each of us and had some "Baci di Dama" homemade cookies. The Al Bicerin drink consists of chocolate, coffee, and whipped cream in a small glass called a Bicerin. It is so delicious! A must-try in Turin! Inna also purchased "Toast with prosciutto and Formaggio," which was quite tasty.
The drink was potent, and both Inna and I had difficulty sleeping.
Saturday, December 29, 2018
I planned to wake up early for our snowboarding trip to Bardonecchia Ski Resort. However, since I had difficulty sleeping the night before, Alex and I departed one hour later.
We would wear our snowboarding gear, with backpacks holding our walkie-talkies and additional warm clothes.
We left our hotel around 7:30 for the Porta Susa Metro, where we boarded the Metro L1 line, bound for Puerto Nuevo (3 stops). When we arrived at Puerto Nuevo metro station, we walked to the Puerto Nuevo train station, where I purchased two one-way train tickets for Bardonecchia, and we boarded the 8:10am local train, arriving at Bardonecchia at 9:40 am.
From there, we boarded a free bus shuttle to the Bardonecchia resort. I hoped to get dropped off at Melezet - the newest part of the resort, but the shuttle continued to Jafferau (a 3-lift-only affair) instead. We stayed on the bus until we returned back to Campo Smith. We first stopped there by a Creperie, but they required snowboard storage, so we continued toward the main building, where we purchased lift tickets and breakfast items.
The food ordering process was unusual. I first had to place an order at a cashier (cassa) and then, with the receipt, walk to the bar, where someone prepared my order. I ordered tea and chocolate and a couple of brioches (pastries).
The snow cover at Bardonecchia was light, with lots of bare ground. Alex and I separated on the first run and had to use the walkie-talkies to connect. Alex fell on the first run (using his new Jones Ultra Mountain Twin 157 snowboard for the first time) and hurt his tailbone. He ended up suffering for a few days, such that sitting down for him was pretty painful.
We snowboarded many runs (the resort was empty primarily on the slopes) and eventually made it to Melezet, where we stopped by for lunch at the
Waikiki Pizza Restaurant.
We ordered two pizzas - a "
Margherita" pizza for me and a "
Buffalo mozzarella" pizza for Alex. Both pizzas were freshly baked, delicious, and inexpensive (6.00 euros for a whole, newly baked Margherita pizza). I also ordered a delicious local beer. After lunch, we continued snowboarding until 3:40 pm, finishing 11 runs.
After snowboarding, we boarded the shuttle to the Bardonecchia train station, purchased return tickets to Torino Puerto Nuevo, and waited for the 17:21 train. We boarded and arrived in Turin at 18:45. We proceeded to the Metro, and 3 stops later, we were back at our
Hotel Residence, Torino Centro.
Inna joined us 15 minutes after spending a full day at the
QC Termetorino spa. She had a fabulous time At the Italian spa.
Since Alex hurt his tailbone, he could not walk very well or sit for too long. We decided to eat dinner nearby and tried the nearby
Vecchia Londra restaurant. I ordered spaghetti with clams, Alex ordered his usual pizza, and Inna had some fish. This was a mediocre restaurant (unlike the high-quality ones we were used to). I was surprised by how busy it was, given that many other quality restaurants were nearby.
Sunday, December 30, 2018
My morning alarm did not ring (I forgot to turn it on), and we slept until 1:10pm! We were all so tired that we did not naturally wake up.
We had breakfast/lunch at the nearby
Barbera eatery as our favorite Bar Bon Turin was closed! Inna and Alex ate ham sandwiches while I enjoyed a fresh croissant (brioche) with hot black tea. Since Alex's tailbone hurt, he returned home (to study and reset) while Inna and I went to Puerto Susa to get train tickets for our upcoming trip to Verbier.
Once we purchased tickets at
Trenitalia, we strolled through Torino. Inna bought a shirt for her brother Vladimir. In addition, we purchased 48-hour bus/metro passes for the three of us at the local tobacco shop. Tobacco shops are the only shops that sell bus/metro tickets.
Inna was keen on visiting the
Museum of Oriental Art, where we saw sculptures from China, Japan, Tibet, Nepal, and Turkey. I liked the small museum, but it was not very extensive. While exploring the area, we stumbled upon a closed Russian restaurant. We hoped to eat there, but we were never able to find the time (it was closed during New Year's Day)
Since we promised to eat dinner with Alex after 17:00, we returned to our Hotel Centro using the #56 bus. It's very convenient to ride the bus (instead of wasting time walking).
At first, we wanted to eat at the well-rated
I Tartufi Bistrot. Even though we arrived before opening, the Bistro was fully booked and should not let us in. We explored the area, hoping to find another worthwhile restaurant, and settled on
Ristrot Guivol, which was also fully booked. However, we made reservations for lunch (for the next day) at 13:15 using the Internet website
Quandoo. It
We ended up eating pizza at
Bricks Ristorante Pizza. I had a buffalo pizza with a bottle of wine. The overall price was 70 euros for 3 pizzas + a bottle of wine. The pizzas were excellent, and we were thoroughly stuffed!
Since
Brick's was offering a New Year's Dinner, we decided to book it (to have something just in case). To save walking time to our hotel, we returned home by #56 bus.
Near our hotel, we stopped by our local
Gelateria La Romana. I selected a few gelato flavors (stracciatella and pistachio) while Inna ordered an Affogato. Alex also ate a 3-flavor gelato.
We asked our Hotel Centro rep to find us a New Year's dinner place, but he could not - after calling 30 places. However, he put in a lot of effort. Luckily, we found
Brick's Ristorante was having a fantastic New Year's Eve party with spots still available.
Monday, December 31, 2018
We returned to our favorite Bar Bon Turin for breakfast in the morning. I enjoyed a part of a croissant filled with pistachio (delicious!) and hot black tea. Inna also ate a part of the pistachio croissant. I had a slight migraine due to a lack of sleep the night before.
We wanted to see the Turin panorama, so we returned to the
Mole Antonelliana, but the line was 3 hours long and we gave up. Instead, we decided to explore the wonderful
Palazzo Madama, which hosts art from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance.
We spent about two hours there enjoying paintings and sculptures.
From here, we returned to our
Ristrot Guivol French restaurant and ordered lunch.
The menu did not change from the day before, and we selected a few items:
- Rice "Vialone Nano" goat cheese, artichokes, and reduction of Nebbiolo creamed with butter of Buffalo
- Sirloin of Lamb stuffed with bra sausage with reduction of port and hazelnuts, Swiss-chard stalks, white pecorino cheese, and carrot and star anise sauce.
- Passion Sphere (best dessert ever)
- Saint Martin Pears with Soy Butter Cream and Chopped Hazelnuts.
This was a Michelin 1-star-rated meal for a very reasonable price. We were delighted and very impressed. We would so much like to return to
Ristrot Guivol!
After lunch, we purchased some gifts and returned home for some rest. Everyone slept for a few hours, and we woke up around 19:00 and dressed for the upcoming New Year Dinner at Bricks.
We took bus #56 to Piazza Castello, but the bus followed a new route (because Piazzo Castello was closed to all traffic due to New Year's festivities). Since we were dropped off near Brick's, we stopped by to check in and then walked to the Piazza Castello square to witness the revelries.
When we arrived at 21:00, not much was happening yet, though a magic show was being planned. After a few minutes, we returned to Brick's, where our New Year's meal began.
Our New Year's Dinner at
Bricks included the following:
Menu
- Ostrica Special de Claire al naturale
- Ostrica Speciale de Bouzigues in tempura con gelato di goma wakame
- Salmone marinata lievemente affumicato in casa, avocado, finocchio, e panna acida
- Timballo di lasagna, cappone e il sua brodo
- Ravioli di cotechino e lenticchie in tre consistenze
- Baccalà Islandese al cartoccio con verdure di stagione
- Dolcezze di Moscato e nocciole
- Surpesa delle 00.30 (pasta!)
Wine Pairings
- Chardonnay Brut - Borgo Maragliano
- "Giuseppe Galliano"Brut Pino Nero e Chardonnay Metodo Tradizionale - Borgo Maragliano
- "Per Fede" Riesling - Borgo Maragliano
- Ruche di Castagnole Monferrato DOCG "Saint Eufemia" - Ferraris
- Langhe Nebbiola DOC "Suri Mesdi" - Cozzo Mario
- Magnum di Bollicine per il Brindisia ciascun tavolo
The New Year's dinner was fabulous! I don't recall ever trying so many delicious entrees and wines!
The staff of
Bricks even sang some songs, like "O Sole Mio." We had an enjoyable time!
After our "surprise" pasta dish at 0:30, we took the nearby Metro back to our hotel. We needed to sleep before our departure for
Verbier, Switzerland. What a fantastic way to spend New Year's Day!
Observations
- Restaurant prices in Turin are meager about the quality and quantity of dishes offered.
- Italians are very friendly.
- Not everyone speaks English, but it's easy to get by with just a few words of Italian.
- With the buses, metro, and trains, there is little need for cars. Public transportation works tremendously, and Google Maps helped us find the best buses/metro combos.
